


apple of his eye

by hanshaped (Herra_Sombra)



Category: X-Men (Alternate Timeline Movies), X-Men (Movieverse), X-Men - All Media Types
Genre: #TheyDeserveBetter, Cherik Inktober Challenge 2019, Ficlet Collection, Fluff, M/M, Slice of Life, teeth-rotting fluff
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2019-10-01
Updated: 2019-10-02
Packaged: 2020-11-08 13:00:05
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 2
Words: 2,031
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/20835863
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Herra_Sombra/pseuds/hanshaped
Summary: A collection of vignettes—little slices of Charles and Erik's life across canon and various alternative universes—which have two things in common: they are all told from Erik's perspective and they arehopefullyso fluffy you're gonna die (from all that sugar).





	1. Day 1: Puppies (Post-X-Men: First Class; Mansion Fic)

**Author's Note:**

> Written for Cherik Inktober Challenge 2019.  
(The prompts are listed below.)  
  
This time around the stories will be short, no more than 1,000 words. (Unless I'll be unable to write something short, because apparently I'm too good at writing long things.)  
I hope you'll like those short vignettes. And I hope they'll be fluffy enough.  
  
I wish all of you wonderful October!  
  
(As always, stories are unbeta-ed, but proof-read.)  
  
The prompts for #TheyDeserveBetter:  
Day 1: Puppies  
Day 2: Kittens  
Day 3: Sunset  
Day 4: Beach  
Day 5: Road trip  
Day 6: Kiss  
Day 7: Cuddles  
Day 8: Fireplace  
Day 9: Blanket  
Day 10: Dreams  
Day 11: Holidays  
Day 12: Anniversary  
Day 13: Children  
Day 14: Proposal  
Day 15: Birthday  
Day 16: Wedding  
Day 17: Sharing food  
Day 18: Music  
Day 19: Babysitting  
Day 20: Cooking  
Day 21: Dancing  
Day 22: Tradition  
Day 23: Stargazing  
Day 24: Flowers  
Day 25: Chess  
Day 26: Hugs  
Day 27: Massage  
Day 28: Help  
Day 29: Pride  
Day 30: Family  
Day 31: Halloween  


**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Rating: G  
Mansion Fic (Erik stayed at the mansion and helped Charles to set up the school)

“Puppies?” Erik can feel one of his eyebrows raise in silent scepticism.

Charles looks up from the cardboard box on his lap, his eyes wide and sparkling. His red lips curl into a bright smile as he says, “Those are for our students.”

“Aren’t they a little too young for that?” Erik crosses his hands over his chest, a deep frown crossing his forehead.

“They are all over eight weeks old,” Charles states cheerfully, reaching out to stroke a little ball of fluff—the bravest pup which has decided to pop his head out of the box.

“I meant students,” Erik answers flatly, not letting his slight amusement show on his face.

“I’d like to teach them responsibility, and this could help.” Charles’s eyes meet Erik’s and the telepath’s undeterred enthusiasm is nearly contagious.

Nearly.

“It’s going to end in disaster,” Erik sighs, even as he leans against the desk, right next to Charles’s chairs.

“Perhaps,” the telepath allows, but his smile doesn’t dwindle.

“We’ll regret it.” Erik’s tone is stern, and yet Charles seems to pay no mind to his words.

“You could have one as well if you’d like,” the telepath says instead, his hands wrapping around the golden pup—the brave one—as gently as if it were made of glass, and he pulls it out of the box.

Before Erik can do as much as breathe a word in protest, he finds himself holding the young dog in his hands, a pair of blue eyes looking back at him curiously. “I already have someone to look after,” he mutters, giving Charles a meaningful look, although it’s hard to avert his gaze from the fluffy thing in his arms.

“It’s adorable, isn’t it?” Charles says tenderly, clearly ignoring Erik’s remark, and scratches the pup’s head.

The ball of fluff responds by leaning into the telepath’s hand, its floppy ear falling over its muzzle. It lets out a soft bark, closing its eyes, and snuggling closer to Erik’s stomach.

Erik can feel the pleasant warmth radiating from the animal, and it’s surprisingly soothing. Then, the pup looks up again, sticking out its tongue in a rather silly way, and Erik decides that it is quite adorable indeed.

Perhaps adorable enough to keep it around—one more pair of cute blue eyes to follow him through the day.


	2. Day 2: Kittens (Modern AU; Kidfic)

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Rating: G  
Other character(s): Lorna Dane  
Modern AU. Still Have Powers. Kidfic. Dadneto.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Okay, this one turned out much longer than intended (apparently, it be like that sometimes), but I hope you'll like it anyway.

The hallway is quiet when Erik enters, hefting a couple of shopping bags, his briefcase floating right next to him. One might think that the house is empty, but Erik has sensed the warm presence of Charles’s mind brushing gently against his own from blocks away and now he picks up the familiar metal of the telepath’s watch in the living room, right there on the couch.

Erik allows a small, warm smile to curl on his lips—a gesture that might seem quite out-of-character for him, not only to many of his co-workers, but also to all the people who don’t know him as closely. At home, however, surrounded by the people he loves more than his own life, this little display of vulnerability isn’t something Erik could ever be ashamed of. And certainly not when he meets the beautiful pair of blue eyes that lights up as soon as he steps into the living room.

“Hello,” Erik says softly, leaning down to kiss Charles’s forehead.

There is a bright grin on Charles’s face as he stretches slightly, reaching out with one of his hands to run it through the hair on the nape of Erik’s neck, and—in doing so—pulls the other man farther down. He captures Erik’s lips in a brief, but no less sweet kiss, his lips delicate as silk; though before the other man can gather his wits enough to respond in kind, Charles is already tilting his head away.

“Hi,” he whispers, his breath ghosting over Erik’s lips. The bright smile doesn’t leave the telepath’s mouth, and his eyes are sparkling, making Erik wonder—not for the first time—how come he’s lucky enough to come back home to this wonder of a man every day of the week. “How was your day?” Charles adds as he leans back against the couch.

“Decent,” Erik allows, straightening and picking up his pace towards the kitchen. “But sometimes I wish I wasn’t working with such idiots,” he continues, his voice raised slightly, even though he can feel Charles raising from the couch and moving to follow him.

Erik enters the kitchen first, using that as a chance to put the shopping bags on the counter and start unpacking all the groceries. Charles reaches the room right after Erik opens the fridge to put away milk and fresh eggs.

“Not everyone can be as smart as you, darling,” the telepath points out patiently, leaning against the doorframe with a smirk.

“Which doesn’t change how infuriating those buffoons are.” Erik smiles wryly, although there isn’t as much ire in his voice as one would expect.

It’s entirely Charles’s fault, of course—Erik never fails to feel his anger dissipate as soon as the telepath looks at him with so openly affectionate an expression. But Charles has always had that kind of an influence on Erik, ever since the night they first met.

“Lorna has a surprise for you,” Charles announces cheerily, pulling Erik out of the exhilarating memories of that fateful evening.

“Does she?” The man in question looks over the cabinet’s door, the jar of peanut butter in hand.

There’s a lopsided smile on Charles’s lips, which can’t possibly bode well. He looks almost like a seemingly innocent cat, which must have done something they weren’t supposed to. Erik squints, trying to put his finger on what it is that the telepath doesn’t want to tell him.

“Trust me.” Charles takes a few steps into the kitchen, stopping right in front of Erik, and he pulls the jar out of the man’s hand, putting it into the cabinet. “You’ll like it,” the telepath adds, his voice low, his retracting hand lingering on Erik’s chest.

The air filling the few mere inches between them seems to crackle with electricity, and soon Erik finds himself leaning into another kiss, the soft brush of lips which quickly turns into something more heated and intense. Charles’s hand slowly, almost teasingly, starts drawing patterns over Erik’s chest, wandering closer and closer to the man’s neck.

This time, Erik does react, wrapping his arms around Charles’s waist and pulling the smaller man closer. His fingers are inching closer to the hem of Charles’s sweater, eager to touch the bare skin, when Erik hears the light steps gradually approaching the kitchen.

They pull away just in time to see Lorna storm into the kitchen, the biggest smile on her round face. Her green hair is braided, courtesy of the help of Erik’s skilled fingers, but a couple of strands have already managed to fall out, tumbling down her forehead, but not dimming her enthusiasm at all.

“Papa, you’re back!” In just a few quick leaps, the girl lands right next to them, reaching her arms towards Erik.

Unable to stifle a tender smile at the sight of his six-year-old daughter, Erik leans down and gathers her in his arms. He plants a kiss on her messy hair and pulls her up, sitting her down on the countertop.

“Hi to you too, _Maus_,” he says softly after he throws Charles a quick glance, but the telepath just smiles innocently.

“Guess what I’ve found today!” Lorna clearly can’t contain her excitement, her eyes sparkling and her grin bright.

“What have you found?” Erik asks with genuine curiosity, knowing well that his daughter isn’t so easily excitable, reserving her excitement only on a couple of things that really interest her—the trait that she might’ve inherited from him.

“Do you remember the kitty that used to come by our house?” Lorna starts swinging her legs as Erik goes back to unpacking, this time with some help from Charles.

“I remember she liked you a lot,” Erik says, putting away one package of pasta and one of brown rice.

“She’s back! And she’s not alone!” Lorna almost jumps from the counter in her elation.

Charles gives Erik a wide smile, putting away the shopping bags, and proceeds to lean against the counter right next to Lorna. He must know what is going on, Erik decides; the telepath’s playful look can’t mean anything good.

“Not alone?” Erik repeats, looking suspiciously at Lorna, who grins brightly in return.

“Come and see!” This time his daughter does leap back to the floor, and starts off towards the door leading to the garden.

Throwing one last wary glance in Charles’s direction, Erik moves to follow Lorna, who’s waiting for him impatiently at the door. They step out on the terrace, and Lorna quickly leads them towards the tool shack at the back of the garden, bouncing happily all the way.

The shack is small, and there is a hole in its side wall, because of which it has become a hiding place for the cats wandering around the neighbourhood. At first, Erik intended to patch it up, not wanting to have stray animals staying in their garden while they already have two cats at home, but Lorna loved it so much, taking care of every furry visitor, that he couldn’t bring himself to do it.

As soon as Lorna throws the shack’s door open, he starts regretting that decision.

In one of the empty cardboard boxes in the corner, there is one of Lorna’s blankets. It doesn’t take long for Erik to connect the dots, and he crouches next to the box, leaning over it to take a peek inside. Just as he feared, he sees a bunch of fluffy black-and-white balls, which start squealing once they realize someone has come.

“Can we keep them?” Lorna askes, squatting on his side.

Erik risks glancing at her, knowing well that her pleading look might be very hard to resist.

“_Liebling_, we already have two cats,” he tries to reason, thinking about Eisen and Silber—the two sisters they adopted three years ago—that are currently sleeping soundly in the living room.

Lorna pouts unhappily. “But our house is big enough for all of them!” she protests, reaching to the box to pet one of the kittens.

It leans into her hand, still squealing, and upon seeing this, she smiles warmly, her eyes sparkling and tender. Erik finds himself unable to say no to her.

“What if we keep them now that they’re still small, and when they are bigger, we’ll find them a new home?” he says, putting an arm around her small shoulders and bringing her closer to his side.

Lorna frowns in consideration, the deep creases forming on her forehead. Charles likes to say that she looks so much like Erik when she does it.

“Okay,” she mumbles eventually, clearly knowing that it’s all her dad will agree to.

With a soft smile, Erik squeezes her shoulders and rises, stepping away and leaving Lorna to pet the small animals. Only now does he realize that Charles is there, just outside the door, looking at them with sheer affection.

“She definitely takes after you in her love for cats,” he observes, smiling, and Erik has a hard time trying to resist kissing the sweet smile off the telepath’s lips.

“She has much more patience for animals than I do,” Erik says with a sigh, not quite agreeing, and takes a look at his daughter, who’s leaning over the box and cooing softly.

“You do have patience for animals, my dear.” Charles steps into the shack and takes Erik’s arm, leaning against his side. “You have patience for all creatures that are not as strong as you, or in need of your help or care.” He kisses Erik’s cheek, and then murmurs against his skin, “You just don’t have patience for buffoons.”

With his lips rising in a one-sided smile, Erik allows himself to steal a kiss or two from his wonderful partner, while Lorna is still gushing over the kittens. Never did he expect that he could find such happiness in his life.


End file.
